Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 356

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Volume 2, Page 356

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[001] returns, that he remain under pledges to stand trial if anyone wishes to proceed
[002] against him. From which the converse appears that if the inquest finds him guilty
[003] and he returns before outlawry he is not to be released on finding pledges but
[004] (because of the prior inquest) kept in custody and in prison until he has cleared
[005] himself of¹ the crime alleged against him.²

Which cause of outlawry ought to be regarded as true and [which as] presumptive.

[007] The cause of an outlawry may sometimes be true, sometimes presumptive. True,
[008] when wickedly and feloniously in breach of the king's peace, in the presence of
[009] many bystanders and onlookers, or at least within the sight and hearing of one
[010] who has an interest enabling him to appeal, a man has been slain, or seriously
[011] wounded and maimed, [or] robbed, imprisoned and chained, provided there is
[012] someone who sues ([if] he cannot sue on his own behalf) when the wrongdoer
[013] takes to flight and cannot be arrested, and provided that the deed constitutes a
[014] felony,³ [because of which, as is evident, the deeds [which] precede⁴ an outlawry
[015] must be carefully investigated,] for some die⁵ through misadventure, as those
[016] drowned or crushed and the like, [or] where, [though] a wounded man could
[017] escape death by medical care he refused to be cured but courted death through
[018] hatred of the man who struck him, or [died] through the inadequacy of his
[019] physicians, who gave him the wrong medicine,⁶ or through taking the food and
[020] drink he had been forbidden (which would not be imputed to the physicians) or
[021] perhaps died a natural death unconnected with the said wound. All these matters
[022] must be carefully investigated by the coroners, but nevertheless, when suit has
[023] been brought, outlawry is not on that account to be deferred.

Presumptive cause.

[025] A cause may be presumptive though not true, because of suit or an inquest made
[026] before the justices, [even] though no cause at all exists, as where he who was
[027] alleged to be slain is alive and well and he alleged to be the slayer, a timid man,
[028] fled because of the suit and appeal,⁷ or where one appealed in two counties⁸
[029] has successfully made his defence (or surrendered himself to prison) in one of them
[030] and has been outlawed in the other, [or]

Notes

1. ‘ab’ for ‘ad,’ all MSS.

2. Remainder transposed supra 355, nn. 3-4

3. Infra 359, 369, 372, 378

4. ‘praecedunt’

5. ‘quidam occidunt’

6. Inst. 4.3.7: ‘Imperitia ... veluti si medicus ... peperem ei medicamentum dederit.’

7. Infra 358, 372, 373, 374, 375

8. ‘of the same deed,’ infra 358, 370, 371, 375